Aldo Fiordelli - 'Deep historical reasons connect Italians to the bitter taste in wine'

In Italy, soils are rich in magnesium, which is responsible for the bitterness in wines,’ Lydia Bourguignon told me in Franciacorta, on the sidelines of the presentation by founder Maurizio Zanella of the redisgorged 1980 Annamaria Clementi Franciacorta cuvée at Ca’ del Bosco last October.

- Aldo Fiordelli

IN MY GLASS THIS MONTH Michele Satta’s Cavaliere, Toscana IGT (2019, £43 Armit) is a 100% Sangiovese bottling from Bolgheri – the land of Bordeaux blends, where the reputation of the Tuscan red grape is sulphurous. Michele’s son Giacomo Satta has given a post-modern twist, fermenting it in concrete with 30% whole-bunch fruit. Raspberry and wild strawberry, liquorice and earthy depth, a fiercely velvety, chewy palate at just 13.5% alcohol. Amazingly fresh and complex for Sangiovese from the coast. (See more on the Tuscan coast in ‘Expert’s choice’, p124)

Lydia is a reliable source and an authoritative and respected figure worldwide, who has been a consultant for Zanella for 10 years.

Her statement, perhaps taken for granted by some experts, struck me and resounded in my ears for days, prompting me to delve deeper. There are no doubts about the truth of the first part of what she said: the best Italian agronomists agree with the highly regarded French consultant. ‘The abundance of magnesium is a consequence of young soils in Italy,’ said Maurizio Castelli, among the most esteemed winemakers of great Italian Sangiovese (involved with Mastrojanni, Bibbiano, Col d’Orcia and many more).